Cassidy Turley marketing 60-acre mixed-use project in Champlin

Real estate firm Cassidy Turley started marketing a portion of the 60-acre site in Champlin that the city is trying to redevelop into a mixed-use project called Mississippi Crossings.

The site is across the Mississippi River from downtown Anoka, straddling Highway 169 near where the river meets the Rum River

The city of Champlin invested more than $15 million to buy the land and invest in the area's infrastructure. Champlin expects the project will include 450 new homes and 185,000 square feet of new commercial space.

Julie Lux, associate vice president in Cassidy Turley's Minneapolis office, is marketing the site with Cassidy Senior Vice President Jim McCaffrey.

“Our goal is to negotiate a deal with a developer that would begin construction this fall or in the spring of 2015," Lux said.

Champlin's conceptual plan calls for a two-story restaurant and event center, a park with a dock on the river, and an upscale apartment complex with retail.

In January, Dominium Development dropped out of plans to build apartments in the development after it wasn’t able to reach a deal with the city on the number of units. The split with Dominium sent the city back to the drawing board looking for a developer, Deputy City Adminstrator John Cox said at the time.

Champlin is building a $1.35 million roundabout on West River Road this summer. The roundabout, the suburb's seventh, will be on the south end of Mississippi Crossings and is meant to improve safety and park access in the area.